Took all the things I was feelin', things around there's just not enough of

First Course: Hors d’oeuvres

“So this is a kitchen, huh?” Gina looked around the spotless kitchen, ignoring the rumbling in her stomach. “Been a while since I was in one of these.”

“Ah, you must be my… ah!”

Gina whipped her head around to see the owner of the voice, and had to do a double-take. The woman standing in front of her was a sweet smiling blonde. She wore a bright pink apron over a white dress, and her brown eyes lit up when she saw Gina.

“Hello there! It’s so nice to see you… err, me, again!” She giggled.

Gina recoiled at the sight of the girl as she skipped over to her. She had seen that face before. Many times, in the mirror.

She was looking at a copy of herself. Only instead of wearing a leather jacket and tight jeans, this Gina looked like she just came back from church.

“You… you’re me? Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?” Gina shook her head in disbelief.

The other Gina looked crestfallen. “Ahem.” She cleared her throat and pointed to a large jar on the counter. It had a sign taped to it that read “SWEAR JAR”.

“Swearing isn’t allowed in my kitchen,” the blonde chastised her other self. “Please put two dollars in the swear jar.”

“Are you fucking serious? I don’t have any fucking money!” Gina exclaimed.

Her counterpart’s smile dimmed. “Two more dollars, please. No swearing! Good girls shouldn’t swear!”

“Well in case you haven’t figured it out, blondie, I’m not what you’d call a ‘good girl’,” Gina sneered. “And I’m going to fucking swear as much as I goddamn please, you got that?”

The “good” Gina sighed. “I figured you’d be hard to deal with…”

Before Gina could stop her, she snapped a bright pink collar around her neck.

“Hey! Get this thing offa me!” Gina exclaimed, tugging against the leather digging into throat. She didn’t have an objection to collars in general, but she’d be damned if she wore something pink. “Ugh, it won’t come undone, this fucking-! …Ha. Pwahaha! Aggh! Stop it! Hyahaha!”

Gina suddenly started laughing like crazy, scratching all over her body. She stripped off her leather jacket to get a better feel of her skin, but the tickling sensation just wouldn’t stop. “What did you do to me?!” She cried through fits of hysterical laughter.

“It’s a laughing collar silly goose!” The other Gina chirped. “Every time you use a no-no word, it tickles you!”

“That’s so fucking stupid!” Gina exclaimed, and the tickling started all over again. “Couldn’t you fucking-hahahaghhaaa! …Electroshock or something?!”

“But… that would hurt you!” The other Gina cried. “And hurting someone is bad!”

She gave her dark-haired self a smile that would rival an angel’s.

“I’m a good girl, and good girls don’t do bad things!”

By the time Gina stopped laughing, she was in a much clearer frame of mind. She was seething inside but she didn’t risk speaking her mind and bringing on another fit of tickling. She could deal with pain just fine, but this? This was torture.

“Okay… so let me see if I got this right,” Gina scowled. “You… you’re me? Is that it?”

“Exactly!” The other Gina nodded. “More specifically, I’m an alternate version of you! I’m you, but as the good girl you’re going to become!”

Gina felt a chill run down her spine. “No way. Absolutely not. I’m not fu- errm…”

She coughed to cover up the word she was about to say, and the other Gina raised her eyebrow suspiciously and glanced towards the swear jar.

The dark-haired Gina let loose a veritable tornado of expletives in her mind, but restrained herself. She took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

“…So you’re the ‘good’ me. What does that mean, exactly?” She fished for clarification. “Are you saying I’m going to turn into you?”

“Eventually, yes!” The blonde Gina nodded excitedly. “And the first step of that is to get you to stop being such a sourpuss, stop being a bad girl and partying all the time, and work together to prepare a nice meal for our master!”

“Okay, see, the ‘serving our master’ part, yeah, I get that,” Gina said, seeing a little bit more of herself in the blonde now. “But you can’t be serious about all that other stuff!”

The other Gina scrunched up her face in concern. “Of course I can, silly goose! No more being a meanie! You’re going to be nice and polite, and do what you’re told!”

“Absolutely fucking not!” Gina blurted out. Then her blood ran cold. “Wait I didn’t mean- gyahahaaa!” She began to feel the sensation of thousands of feathers brushing over every part of her body, and burst out laughing.

“It’s okay!” Her blonde counterpart encouraged her. “We have all the time in the world to help get you on the right track to becoming a good girl!”

The tickling session only lasted a few more seconds, but when it was over Gina vowed that she’d never say another swear word while she had the collar still locked around her neck.

“Fine!” She spat. “Let’s just get this stupid challenge over with.”

She looked at the upset blonde. “What? I didn’t say a curse word this time!”

“But you still have a bad attitude,” the other Gina said, puffing up her cheeks. “You’re a good girl now! You can’t be all negative and say things are stupid! That’s the kind of rude stuff that a bad girl would do!” She took Gina by the hand. “Come on! Let’s do our jobs with smiles!”

She pointed at her smiling face, and Gina felt like she was going to puke. But she tried her best to force a smile in return.

They had the same face, but what came naturally to one Gina was agonizingly-difficult for the other.

“…That’s a great start!” The good Gina chirped, incapable of expressing negativity. “You just need to work on it! In the meantime, put this on!”

She handed Gina an apron. It was bright pink, with frilly lace.

“Oh, no, absolutely not,” Gina said, shaking her head. “I’m not wearing that frilly sh- thing. It’s pink!”

“I know! It’ll look great on you!” Her blonde counterpart gushed.

“Okay, listen up, ‘Good Gina’,” Gina snapped.

“It’s ‘Regina’ actually,” the blonde corrected her. “That’s the name my parents gave me, and it’s the name I should use.”

Gina felt like she wanted to throw up again. “Okay, Regina. I’m not wearing some frilly pink apron, savvy? And I’m not going to be some good girl who always obeys the rules! Yeah, I’ll cook for Nick, fine, but we’re going to make what I want to make, my way! Got it?”

For the first time, Gina’s other self slipped into a full-on frown.

“Regina…”

“NO! None of that!” Gina cut her off. “You wanna be Regina? Fine. But I’m Gina. Got that?”

“…Okay then! If that’s what you want!” Regina tried to smile, but her smile looked dim. “Now, as I was about to ask, you like the idea of Nick being your master, don’t you? Our master?”

Gina blushed a little and curled a lock of her hair. “I mean… yeah, it’s kinda sexy… what’s your point?”

“Well, a good slave is one who obeys her master, right?” Regina pressed.

Gina sighed. She knew where her other self was going with this.

“Look, Regina-”

“So if your master wants you to be a good girl, to not swear or be rude anymore, then that’s what you should do, right? To make him happy!” Regina encouraged her.

Gina shook her head. “I’ve been down this road already. And you know what? If Nick’s the sort of guy who wants me to fundamentally change who I am? Then maybe he’s not the kind of guy I want to be my master!”

Regina crossed her arms over her sizeable chest. “Liar.”

Gina flinched. “N-No, I’m not!”

“You WANT to be a good girl. That’s where your whole slave fantasy comes from, isn’t that right? Subservience and submission! Well, what’s more submissive than giving up everything you are for your master’s pleasure?” She demanded.

Gina tried to come up with a good response, but her brain wouldn’t let her. Something inside of her was compelling her to be good and just put the damn apron on.

“…Fine,” she growled, snatching the frilly pink garment out of her hand. “Give it to me.”

She slipped the apron on over her clothes, surprised it didn’t immediately burst into flames on contact with her.

“Can we do this already?!” Gina demanded.

“Of course!” Regina chirped. “What do you want to cook?”

Gina stared at her. “I don’t know. You’re the good girl here. Don’t you do a ton of cooking and s-stuff?”

Regina returned her blank stare with one of her own. “…I’m a good girl. That doesn’t mean I know any more about cooking than you do. Now, if you want some advice about how to sing in our church’s choir, I’d be happy to-”

“NO THANKS!” Gina snapped, storming past the blonde and walking over to the counter. There was a massive cookbook on there. She began furiously flipping through it for ideas before she finally landed on something that even she could make with her nonexistent cooking skills.

“Ah, there we go! Now that’s perfect!” She grinned, showing the cookbook to her counterpart. “Deviled eggs!”

Regina had her doubts. “But… that sounds like such a bad food! Deviled? It’s so wicked! How about something nice and sweet?”

“You’re the assistant here,” Gina reminded her. “Your job is to assist me on MY recipe, and I say deviled eggs.”

She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “Or are you going to be a bad girl and ignore the chef’s instructions?”

Regina frantically shook her head. Not following orders? That was unthinkable for a good girl like her!

“Okay, according to this, we need half a dozen eggs, three tablespoons of mayonnaise, one teaspoon of… ugh, this is so confusing! What’s the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon, anyway?!” Gina grumbled.

Regina was quick with the answer. She grabbed the measuring spoons out of the drawer. “This one is a tablespoon,” she said, holding up the larger one, “and this is a teaspoon. They even have labels, see?”

“…Oh yeah, cool,” Gina nodded. “So we’ll need a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and a few sprinkles of salt, pepper, and paprika.”

She grinned. “That seems pretty simple, actually!” Gina always assumed that she would suck at cooking, so she never tried it. It seemed like one of those really difficult things that took too much time and would be a pain in the ass to learn. But she had all the time in the world here, and frankly, she hadn’t been spanked nearly enough today, and could use a bit of pain in her ass.

“Let’s do it!” Regina cheered. That was one benefit of a good girl like her. She was exceedingly positive.

Gina was correct in the end. Making deviled eggs were a little more complicated than she’d thought, but still simple enough to do if you followed the recipe properly. The girls worked together to boil the eggs, mash the yolks, mix them together with mustard and mayonnaise, and added vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste. They stirred the mixture together until it was creamy and scooped spoonfuls into each hollowed out egg half.

Regina added a tiny sprinkle of paprika to each one, and they were done.

“Delicious!” She cooed.

“Hey, wait! I didn’t need this stupid apron at all!” Gina realized. The spillage for this recipe was nonexistent.

Regina ignored her. “We’re all done! Try one!” She handed Gina one of the deviled eggs to taste. While it was poor form to eat before their master, it would be even worse to serve him food that didn’t suit his tates.

Gina took a bite, and she nearly choked.

“It’s… good!” She gasped, finishing it of in another bite. “REALLY good! I made this?!”

“We made it,” Regina corrected her. Then she giggled. “Although technically, yes, you did make it. See what you can do, if you just follow the recipe? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“I-I guess not,” Gina admitted sheepishly. She blushed.

“See, it’s not so bad to be good sometimes!” Regina winked at her counterpart. “But we’re not done just yet! There’s one more crucial ingredient to make sure our master is delighted with it!”

“Oh?” Gina thought they’d followed the recipe perfectly. “What ingredient is that?”

Regina leaned in close and whispered something in her ear.

Gina turned pale. “Absolutely fucking not!”

The tickling resumed, but she powered through it. “I won’t do that!” She exclaimed. “That’s humiliating! You’re the good girl here, why don’t you do it?!”

Regina smiled sadly back at her. “I can’t,” she said quietly. “I’m just the assistant. I’m not allowed to leave the kitchen, you see. Once you’re gone… I’ll disappear.”

A pang of sadness shot through Gina’s chest. As much as seeing a nice version of herself pissed her off, they’d actually bonded a little. She didn’t want to say goodbye.

“Regina…”

“Don’t worry!” Regina grinned. “I’m you, remember? That means a part of me is inside of you! Now go do your best for your master’s sake, okay?”

Somehow, hearing that from her other self actually made it easier. Gina nodded and picked up the tray of deviled eggs and pranced out the kitchen door, still clad in her apron.

---

“…So, uh… what do you do for a living?” Sylvia asked, taking a sip of wine.

Nick frowned. “Why are you trying to make this seem like a real date?” He asked dryly.

Sylvia scowled. “I’m trying to have a nice night! Why are you being so distant!?”

“First off, it’s morning,” Nick corrected her. “And second off, the reason I’m so distant is because you forced me onto a reality show where I have to watch women I care about be subjected to hideous transformations that remake their bodies and minds.”

Sylvia stared blankly at him. She took another sip of wine. “Oh, yeah. That.”

“Yeah. That.”

Before the awkward mood could get any worse, Gina walked out the kitchen door with a smile on her face, and Nick nearly fell out of his chair.

“Gina?!” He sputtered in disbelief. “What are you wearing?!”

Gina absolutely loathed the color pink. And yet she wore a leather pink choker and a pink apron. In her hands she held a tray of deviled eggs.

“I wanted to dress up properly for you this evening, master!” She replied with a smile. She set the tray down between the dining pair. “Your whore… err… hors d’oeuvres? Yeah. Those. Deviled Eggs- DeAmico Style.”

Nick doubted the edibility of the food in front of him, but due to the rules of the competition he had to take at least one bite. The fact that Sylvia was staring warily at him and didn’t take one herself wasn’t lost on him either.

“Wait, master, before you eat, I have on last thing to do,” Gina stopped him. She took a deep breath, leaned over, and blew a kiss over the tray.

Nick’s jaw dropped.

“I filled each one of these with love and affection for you, master,” Gina said, giving him a charming wink. She stood up straight and waited anxiously for him to try the food.

“Well, uh… thanks,” Nick said, not sure at all how to reply to something like that. Or how to handle her fake smile.

Gina kept the smile plastered to her face, ignoring Sylvia’s roaring laughter and Holly trying not to giggle. She just had to endure this for a little bit more, and then she could cut this stupid collar off. And burn the apron.

“Hey! This is amazing!” Nick couldn’t believe it. Gina hadn’t just made something edible, she made something that actually tasted good! He finished the first one off, and reached for another, scooping two more onto his plate.

“Let me try one,” Sylvia said, snagging an egg for herself. “Hey, yeah, this isn’t bad!”

“I’m so glad you like it, master!” Gina sighed in relief. The two of them finished off the deviled eggs in a flash, and she felt a weight lift off her shoulders.

“Thank you, Gina,” Sylvia said, looking up from her plate. “Your course is now finished.”

She waved her cane, though it was more for spectacle than doing anything constructive. Gina stepped aside, tugging the collar off her throat and practically ripping the apron off her. She could finally breathe again. She considered throwing the apron in the nearest trashcan, but stopped herself. Regina’s smiling face flashed through her head.

Well… I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to keep it around for sentimental reasons.

Second Course: Soup Course

“Well… hello there.”

Dakota found herself facing off against a wicked reflection of herself. The other version of her had longer hair and wore a black and red dress, but the wicked gleam in her golden eyes was unmistakable.

“So that’s the nature of this challenge, then?” Dakota asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I see you understand well,” the wicked version of her giggled. “I’ll spare you the explanation, then. Shall we get started?”

“…Fine,” Dakota spat out. She stormed past her other self and went for the cookbook immediately, looking for something to make.

“You can try to ignore me if you want,” her dark self called out to her, leaning back against the counter. “But that won’t make me go away. …Of course, you already know that, don’t you?”

Dakota’s eye twitched.

“You’ve been trying to suppress me for so long… that dark side of you… playing the ‘good girl’ as if you could ever just be a normal girl with a normal love…”

Dark Dakota clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I’ll never go away. You can’t undo the things you’ve done. Deep down inside, no matter how hard you try to shut me down with your appeals to Nick’s childhood and your colorful movie selection, I’m still there.”

She slunk over to her counterpart and started poking the side of her head.

“Tick… tick… that’s me… digging away into you… reminding you of what you lost… what you could have… what you could give him… if only you were willing to do what’s necessary…”

Dakota slammed the cookbook shut and turned to other self. Her eyes were just as cold.

“There isn’t a single thing you can say that I don’t already know to be true,” she coolly replied. “You want me to be the villain? Fine. I can be the villain. But I don’t need to be. I’ll bring Nick happiness. MY way. I don’t need to become something like you.”

The other Dakota threw back her head and laughed. “Oh my poor, pitiful little girl… you already ARE ‘something like me’. You just don’t want to accept it yet. Because you know that if you do… if you embrace who you really are…”

She leaned in close and whispered into Dakota’s ear.

“He’ll reject you.”

Dark Dakota slipped back, suppressing a fit of giggles while the real Dakota glowered at her.

“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Pretending to care about Gina? Those fits of kindness to the other girls? They’re all just an act, to keep him liking you. Because deep down, you only care about him… no, that’s not quite right, is it?”

Dakota balled up her hands into fists. “Shut up…”

“The truth is, the only person you really care about is you, isn’t it?”

“SHUT UP!” Dakota lunged at her other self, but she stepped aside. Dakota sprawled across the kitchen floor and hopped to her feet, seething with anger.

“There you go again, losing your cool,” the dark woman sighed, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. “You used to be so much better than this, don’t you remember? We used to be better. But now here you are, losing your head over your childhood friend, and why? Because you care about him? Because you love him? Love is a lie, remember? Didn’t we realize that all those years ago?”

“No, it’s… it’s not…” Dakota fought back the tears building up in her eyes.

Her twisted reflection shrugged. “Then tell him. Tell him all the things you did, after you died. If your love is real, he’ll forgive you, right?”

Dakota couldn’t respond.

“What? No answer? No ‘yes, right away’? …Well. Maybe you’re starting to realize that I’m right, and your relationship is that fragile.” She giggled, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “What a poor state to be in…”

Dakota growled through clenched teeth, “are you going to help me or not?”

“Why of course I am! That’s what I’m here for, after all. To help you.” Her eyes glowed gold with malevolence as she curled up her lips in a wicked smirk. “I’ll help you get everything you ever wanted. All you need to do is ask.”

Dakota ignored her. She tried to force that dark reflection of her aside and focus on the real her. The person she wanted to be.

Even if that person was just a lie created by a transformation.

“We’re making tomato soup,” she snarled. “Grab the tomatoes and start mashing while I simmer the pot.”

Her other self smiled and lifted the hem of her dress in a curtsy. “As you wish.”

---

Not long after Gina served the deviled eggs, Dakota came out of the kitchen with two piping hot bowls of soup on a tray. She set down one in front of Sylvia, and the other in front of Nick.

“Tomato bisque soup,” she said, trying to smile. “It’s exactly like the kind we used to have, back home. Only this one didn’t come from a can. I made it myself!”

She grinned at Nick and he smiled back at her.

“It looks delicious, Dakota!” Sylvia said, smiling at the dark-haired girl. “You really outdid yourself!”

Dakota ignored her. She had no use for Sylvia’s words. Nick was the only thing that mattered. She stood beside him, and as he reached for the spoon, she stopped him.

“Allow me,” she said, taking the spoon from the bowl. She tucked back her hair and leaned forward, blowing on it a few times.

Nick blushed at the sultry look of her lips blowing on the chunky red sauce. She passed it to his lips and he swallowed. It had been cooled to the perfect temperature.

“This is delicious!” Nick said, amazed. “How did you do it? It tastes exactly like when we were kids!”

“Hard work, and trial and error,” Dakota answered, holding up her hands. Nick could see they had a reddish-orange hue to them. “You can’t imagine how many bowls I went through before it was perfect. I don’t think I’ll ever get my hands totally clean!”

She shared a laugh with him, trying to get her mind off the confrontation with her other self. And she certainly wouldn’t give Sylvia the satisfaction of looking her way. That was a dirty trick she pulled, and Dakota refused to endorse it.

Instead, she continued to serve Nick, blowing on each spoonful of soup before it passed his lips. It took way longer than it needed to, but that was fine. He was happy. She was happy.

She wished this moment could last forever.

Third Course: Appetizer Course

“Hey everybody! Lee-Lee here, and today, we’re going to be doing some cooking!”

Carly stared in shock at the figure standing in front of her, making kissy faces into her phone. It was like she was looking at some cartoonish caricature of herself- which was saying a lot, because she was currently dressed like a cartoon character herself.

The other Carly- or “Lee-Lee” as she called herself, wore an oversized white shirt over black leggings and had a pair of headphones on over her ears. Her hair was still short, but was colored bubblegum pink, with streaks of white running through it, and her eyes were sparkling with glee- and not even leaving her phone long enough to look Carly’s way.

“Um, excuse me?” Carly cleared her throat, not sure what was going on here. Was this other her supposed to be her assistant?

“Oh! Look, there she is!” Lee-Lee held up her phone at an angle where Carly was in the shot as well, and threw up a peace symbol. “This is Carly! Say hi, Carly!”

“Um… hi?” Carly cracked a smile and waved.

“Oh. Em. Gee. Would you just look at what she’s wearing? Isn’t that just the cutest top ever?” Lee-Lee gushed. “I always thought I was one of a kind when it came to being pretty, but it looks like my other self is giving me a run for my money, el oh el.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Carly still had no idea what to make of the girl in front of her. But that weird streamer version of herself wasn’t important right now. She was in the middle of a challenge, so she had to figure out what to prepare. An appetizer? What would even be good as an appetizer?

“Hey, uh… Lee-Lee, was it?”

“That’s me! Starlight Lee-Lee!” Lee-Lee didn’t take her eyes off her phone’s camera while she answered Carly’s question.

“…Right. So what do you think we should make?” Carly was drawing a complete blank. Sylvia said that their assistants could be helpful, and she hoped that this other version of her would have some suggestions.

“El oh el. Girl, we don’t actually cook on a stream like this,” Lee-Lee giggled. “It’s all about shooting the food at the best angle, and making sure we look our best while doing it! Then maybe we’ll pop something in the microwave. Oh! I just got, like, a totally great idea!” She walked over to the pantry, which was filled to the brim with ingredients. She grabbed a bag and held it up in front of the camera.

“Powdered mashed potatoes! Just add water and blammo! El oh el, now that’s an appetizer!” While Carly stared incredulously at the pink-haired girl, she walked over to the refrigerator. And took out a can of soda. “And when we’re done, we can wash it down with our sponsor for today’s stream, Beast Energy Drink!” She took a sip and let out a refreshing sigh. “Ahh… tastes like a sugar crash.”

“Are you going to help me or not?” Carly was really trying to be accommodating but this was absolutely the worst week for something like this. Powdered mashed potatoes? Was she kidding?

“El oh el, girl, I AM helping you!” Lee-Lee rolled her eyes. “You think it’s enough to just look pretty? If you want to get those big twitch bucks, you’re going to need to try a LOT harder. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love that top. Like, oh em gee, it suits you perfectly! But you gotta perform for the camera and give the fans a little something something, you know what I mean?”

She winked at the camera and pulled the hem of her shirt down to expose some milky cleavage. Her phone started to ding with notifications.

“Ooh, CrabberBob just donated $20! ‘You’re definitely the cutest one out there, Lee-Lee’ aww, thank you! I know, I’m super-cute!” Lee-Lee giggled.

“Can you please just take this seriously?” Carly begged. “This is a really important challenge, and I have to do my best!” Carly was presently faced with a dilemma. She cared about Dani and Mimi, and wanted to save them both. But she could only choose one. And honestly, she didn’t know which one it would be yet. She wanted to go with her gut and choose Dani, but that would mean Mimi was at risk.

She didn’t know what to do. So instead of worrying about the problem later, she wanted to devote her energy to the issue she could solve, making this course.

“Just… please help?” Carly pleaded with her.

Lee-Lee sighed and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I know! She’s such a buzzkill. I can’t believe that she’s even me sometimes, you know? But don’t be too hard on her, she’s been a bit of a downer ever since her kid died, el oh el.”

Carly’s blood froze in her veins. “…What did you say?”

“Like, geez, just make another one, amirite? No sense in being all gloomy about the past, el oh el.”

That did it.

“What the hell is the matter with you?!” Carly exclaimed. She tore the phone from Lee-Lee’s hand and flung it across the room. “How could you say something like that about Emmy?!”

“Ugh, psycho bitch! What are you doing?!” Lee-Lee struggled against Carly’s iron grip. “Let go of me!”

“How could you say that?! How could you say that?!” Carly demanded. She began to tear up. “Emmy was your DAUGHTER! How can you act like she doesn’t even matter?! What’s WRONG with you?!”

Lee-Lee’s smile faded and she stared soullessly at her. Without the camera, Carly could finally see just how hollow her other self was.

“What’s the matter with you?” Lee-Lee coldly replied. “Isn’t this what you always wanted? To put all that darkness and pain behind you? To lose yourself in your adoring fans, so you didn’t have to think about all that heartache?”

“I-I…” Carly didn’t know what to say. The veracity in her doppelganger’s words cut her like a knife.

“Do you know how many followers I have watching my streams?” Lee-Lee continued. “I’m almost up to 20 million! Everybody loves me. I’m the number one! I’ve got millions of simps emptying out their wallets just to give ME a cushy lifestyle playing video games and taking sexy photos. What’s better than that?”

She reached up and playfully pinched Carly’s cheek. “It’s what we wanted, right? They worship us!”

Carly felt like she was going to be sick. She fought back the tears in her eyes and stumbled back, letting the other woman go.

“Just stop,” she muttered. “I don’t need your help. Get out of here!”

Her other self’s words stung way too much. She saw what she could have become, could still become, and it made her sick.

This is what Sylvia and this show want from me, isn’t it? They’re trying to strip away the parts of me that are sincere, and turn me into some hollow, obnoxious thot streamer. Carly bit her lip. She wasn’t going to lose to someone like that. She wasn’t going to become someone like that.

Lee-Lee rolled her eyes and went to retrieve her phone. Luckily for her, it wasn’t broken. “Ugh. Major bitch alert. Looks like this collab’s a bust. Still, let’s keep the stream going! I promise, this girl is totally gonna mess up, el oh el.”

Carly shoved the packaged mashed potatoes aside and went to grab the real thing. She felt like it was a middle finger to the obnoxious bitch she was stuck with.

Mashed potatoes, huh? I can do that.

It was easier said than done, though. Carly had never prepared a meal in her life. But even though she followed the recipe perfectly, she still made a ton of mistakes.

“Ow!” She wiped the blood off her finger. It was like the fourth time she’d cut herself peeling these stupid potatoes.

“El oh el, what an epic fail!” Lee-Lee chortled behind her. “She’s a total newb, hashtag Potato PWNAGE!”

Through trial, sweat, and a lot of spilled blood, Carly was finally able to peel the potatoes. They were lumpy and lopsided, but they were peeled. She cut them into bite-sized bits, and tossed them into a vat of boiling water.

“Boil until soft… how the hell am I supposed to do that?” She grumbled, scanning the page for any sort of timestamp to tell her when.

But she couldn’t find any. So after she added salt to the water, she couldn’t do anything but wait.

And listen to Lee-Lee answer questions from her fans.

“Where do I get all my costumes? El oh el, I get them custom-made from a quality designer! Like, can you imagine if I had to sew them by hand? Yikes. It’s like, what, do you LIKE not having free time? …El oh el, totally.”

…

“What’s my favorite game I’ve played? Well, let me tell you about one of my favorite sponsors, Maid: Shadow’s Legend. It’s so totally great, you should really check it out!”

...

“My bathwater? Sales right now are going great! We’re currently going at $40 dollars a jar, and we’re expanding the line to include my used chewing gum and toothbrushes! Stay tuned for more info el oh el, limited while supplies last!”

...

After an agonizingly long period of time, the potatoes were finally done boiling. At least Carly assumed so. They seemed soft enough, anyway.

They were not.

“Urgh… this… fucking… thing!” Before she could use the mixer, Carly needed to hand mash. Only problem? A soft potato was still a potato, and it felt like she was pushing against concrete. She did everything she could think of, punch the potatoes with the masher, roll it back and forth like a seesaw, even spin it in a circle, but she just couldn’t get all the lumps out. Her hands were already injured, and now they were getting sore.

After what felt like hours of Lee-Lee’s taunting laughter in her ears as she exploited Carly’s hard work for “content” and calling out “git rekt” Carly finally managed to work what she had into something vaguely creamy enough to be mixed. She added milk and salt and got the beater working, and started going to town on the potato mush in the bowl.

She never imagined the whir of an electronic beater could be comforting. But since it drowned out Lee-Lee’s obnoxious voice, it was the best sound she’d ever heard.

---

Dakota and Gina stood on the sidelines while Carly came out with her bowl full of mashed potatoes. She tried to smile, she really did, but her other self had completely broken her spirit.

“Here you go,” she said, scooping half the mashed potatoes onto Sylvia’s plate. The blonde inspected them with a raised eyebrow. They were still filled with lumps and potato chunks. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get them totally smooth.

But at this point, she didn’t even care. She gave Nick the rest, glad she was finally done. She didn’t even have the strength to put on a show for him.

“Ahem.”

Carly’s head jerked up to see Sylvia staring at her with a judgmental look on her face.

“…What is it?” Carly groaned.

“Where’s the gravy?” Sylvia gestured at the dry potatoes on her plate. “You do realize mashed potatoes need gravy, right?”

Carly’s eye twitched.

“Sylvia, it’s fine,” Nick frowned.

“All I’m saying, is if she wants to please you, she could at least add some gravy,” Sylvia said, shaking her head.

Carly resisted the urge to scream, turned, and walked into the kitchen.

The time between when she walked through the double doors and when she came back out could barely be counted in seconds, but the time she’d spent in the kitchen was far longer, as made apparent by the exhausted look on her face. But she emerged with a saucer of gravy all the same.

She took a deep breath, and ladled some over Sylvia’s mashed potatoes.

“Thank you!” Sylvia chirped, and began to dig in. Carly turned to Nick next, and to his surprise, she actually managed a smile.

“Sorry I’m a little on edge right now,” she apologized. “It’s been a really rough week. And this challenge wasn’t much better.”

“N-No, it’s fine,” Nick said, shaking his head. He knew how much shit she was going through.

“Want to see something cool?” Carly grinned. She picked up a spoon and began tapping on the sides of his mashed potatoes. She gently sculpted them into a lumpy mountain in the middle of his plate, and then used her spoon one last time to make a deep divot in the center.

She tilted her sauced down, and let the gravy cascade into the hole and overflow over the edges.

“Mashed potato volcano!” She giggled. A wistful smile touched her lips. “My mom used to do that for me, actually.”

She started to tear up as she thought about Emmy. She never got the chance to make a mashed potato volcano for her. It just wasn’t fair.

Nick sensed the overflow of emotions coming from her, and tried to smile.

“Thank you,” he said, scooping up a bit of the volcano and popping it into his mouth. The potatoes themselves were lumpy and not perfectly blended together, but that didn’t matter. The flavor couldn’t be beat. “It tastes really good, Carly.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, smiling back at him. “I did my best.”